Dog owners whose pets mess on village paths will be fined

Officers from Malvern HIlls District Council's Street Scene Team are cracking down on the problem in Kempsey and will be issuing fixed penalty notices (FPN) to anyone who fails to clean up after their pooch.

The initiative has been welcomed by residents and is set to get underway after a preliminary patrol of the village was undertaken last week.

Parish councillor Neville Brookes, who lives in Hillside, said people had to "take their life into their own hands" at times with the amount of dog mess and loose hedge cuttings on the paths and in the alleyways of the village.

"I'm fed up of walking in dog mess," he said at the parish council meeting, before he called for the alleyway between Old Road North and Rookery Road to be covered in an asphalt surface.

"It might discourage people walking along there to stop letting their pets mess. We are in the 21st Century and it's not acceptable. I don't see why I, or more to the point children walking to school who use that alleyway, should walk through that filth."

Malvern Hills district councillor Marian Walters said the initiative was already in operation in Upton-upon-Severn where two FPN and three warning letters have already been issued by the council's Street Scene Team.

She said the team had a walk around Kemspey and were particularly concerned about the amount of dog mess in Squires Walk and Old Road North.

After the meeting, Malvern Hills District Council animal welfare officer Paul Hine said: "If owners fail to clean up their dogs faeces in an area where the Dogs Fouling of Land Act 1996 applies, which is nearly all public places or private spaces where the public have access, they are committing an offence.

"There are a high number of responsible dog owners out there, but there are also a few who refuse to follow the law and as such they are giving everyone else a bad name. This behaviour needs to stop and we are determined to crack down on it."